A Bad Friday on the Course

My friend David is back in town and I wanted to have a good round.

At the range before we played, the shots were going well until I got to the driver.  I hit about 6 of them and none were good.  An auspicious beginning.

It didn't go much better on the course either.  The first shot was fine and I hit a good 6 iron to the first green.  It didn't end up on the green and I had a simple chip.  It went a few feet past and even though the putt was good, it didn't drop.

That pretty much summed up the day: lots of missed putts, no good drives.  It could have been much better scoring if the putts had dropped as I was chipping ok.

What was going on...  It was my usual fault in that my upper body was getting ahead of everything and then I played catch up with the hands.  Not a good way to play.

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We played again on Monday.  Same thing...  While David almost shot his age on Friday, Monday was not too good for him either.


Ok.  Well, there is always youtube for a quick answer to anything.  I was watching a couple of the golf blogs that I subscribe to  and in one they had Luke Donald and Chris Wood playing with a couple of the bloggers.  The bloggers are pretty good golfers, so this is not as ugly as one might think.  But what caught my eye was how both of these pros "set" their feet and legs prior to a shot.

The swings had active lower body movement, but not a lot.  They also were in no hurry to complete the back swing.  "Hmm," I thought, "can it be unreasonable to copy the swing of a pro?" 

So today I implemented two things.  One was to settle the lower body/legs into position before a swing and, 2, to take a slow backswing.

This worked pretty well.  My drives were good, not great, but they were in the fairway and maybe 210 off the tee.  This distance is good enough for the course I play.  If I can get within 150 yards of a green I can usually par the hole.

I did hit two bad tee shots.  They cost 3 strokes.  I shot 38, 39 with a couple of birdies.  I also missed a ton for short putts.  It could have been close to 72 if I'd dropped them all.

I have a luncheon tomorrow as one of the lab folks is retiring, so I'll practice a bit instead of playing.  Thursday is usually an off day, but I may play then.  I've got a regular group for Friday. 

The new mode of swinging feels weird but I gritted my teeth and did it.  Every time the ball went straight off the tee it surprised me.  But it is a feeling that I can get used do.

I remain your optimistic reporter!